Garona Halforcen
Garona Halforcen is a half-orc half-draeneiConflicting Loyaltiesassassin. Formerly an emissary of the Horde during the first invasion of Azeroth, she was the reluctant murderer of King Llane Wrynn. Biography Rise to power Having travelled throughout Draenor, Garona was well-versed in the culture of the orcs, making her an invaluable asset to the Shadow Council. She was inducted into the warlock-controlled Stormreaver clan. She quickly became the Chief Interpreter of the Shadow Council and Gul'dan's personal spy and assassin. However, Garona belonged to no clan, and had no clan allegiance. Due to her mixed blood, she was eternally an outcast and had to rely upon her wits to keep her alive in the harsh world. Upon arriving in Azeroth, Garona's experience lent a great deal to her insight with their newest foe — the humans. Emissary to Medivh Originally, she was a member of one of the first raiding parties into Azeroth, and also one of the few to confront the Guardian Medivh. While her party was wiped out, she was spared and sent back to relay a message to the warlock Gul'dan. After a period of time, she returned and met with the Magus on many occasions. Eventually, she was granted the title of The Emissary and sent to Karazhan. It was there that she met Khadgar, Medivh's apprentice (and observer from Dalaran). Khadgar was, at first, furious at her presence, but the Magus demanded Khadgar treat her with respect. A trust was formed between the two when a bizarre demon appeared in the library of the great tower, and both had to utilize their skills together to defeat it. Garona and Khadgar continually criticized each other's race while defending their own. Eventually, Garona mentioned to Khadgar that the orcs had been arriving on Azeroth via a gateway known as the Dark Portal. Garona also began to respect Magus Medivh a great deal, and because of that respect, she started to debate her true loyalties. Stating that the "Old Man" had told her everything she wanted to know, despite knowing full well that she was a spy, she felt that she could never break that trust. She even made the comment that the bond of trust made her feel more 'human', and that she felt Medivh had a grand dream to bring something better to this world. Battle with Medivh Due to Medivh's bizarre behavior, Khadgar and Garona felt it necessary to investigate and uncover any connection between the sudden arrival of the orcs and Medivh's behavior. Using a spell to call forth a vision of the past, Khadgar and Garona discovered that Medivh was, in fact, the man who had brought the orcs into Azeroth, thus uncovering his plans of murder and deceit. This shook Garona to the core, and while at first she thought it to be a misfire of the spell, she eventually realized that Medivh was indeed the one who had opened the gateway for the orcs. After a short battle with Medivh, where Khadgar used his powers to summon a vision of Aegwynn that distracted the Magus, the two escaped and made their way to the (former) Kingdom of Azeroth. Despite a small interruption in their journey, they eventually met up with Lord Anduin Lothar. They told their story to Lothar and King Llane Wrynn of Azeroth, but Llane could not believe it was true. Despite Llane's skepticism, it was Lothar who realized that the Magus had truly gone insane, and at his suggestion, a small raiding party was gathered to confront Medivh in Karazhan. Later that very evening, Garona donned the colors of Azeroth at Lothar's request and joined the party as they set out via gryphons to the tower. After searching about the tower, they soon came across a hidden passageway downward, but leading into a mirror image of the tower itself, where Medivh's second shadow Sargeras dwelled. It was also at this time that both Garona and Khadgar witnessed something that would forever change the half-orc. Karazhan presented Garona with a vision of her future, where her present-self was forced to watch in horror as her future-self murdered King Llane during the siege against Old Stormwind City. For a while, Garona was terrified of what she knew would eventually come to pass. Llane was one of the few people in her life who had treated her with kindness and she did not want to kill him. Khadgar finally snapped her out of her state of shock and forced her to focus on the more important matter at hand. He told her that if the vision was true, then it meant they would both get out of Karazhan alive (since Khadgar had previously seen a vision of his own future as well), and that if it was false then she could die taking comfort in the knowledge that she wasn't destined to betray King Llane. Eventually, they found Medivh, who unleashed all the powers bestowed upon him by his mother and the demon lord Sargeras. Garona, now boiling with anger at Medivh's betrayal — and perhaps hoping to die rather than live out the vision she had seen — attacked the Magus head on, only to be struck down by a powerful spell. Medivh expressed disappointment in Garona, telling her that he had hoped she of all people would understand what he was going through and not oppose him. Feeling little remorse for the half-orc, he then touched her head and cast a second spell, filling her mind with the doubts and divisions that he himself had carried. She fell to the floor, incapacitated. Moments later, after much conflict, Medivh was finally slain by Khadgar and Lothar (at that moment Gul'dan was still deep within the Guardian's thoughts causing him to go into coma), but Garona was nowhere to be found... Llane's assassination Soon after, Garona became a trusted confidant to King Llane, but because of Medivh's mind games, she was unable to form a true allegiance. She reported to King Llane the inner workings of the Horde and how he could use it to his advantage. After her "release" by orc forces during a raid on Northshire Abbey, she was ordered (presumably by the Shadow Council) to kill King Llane.The Temple of the Damned Realizing that her vision had become a reality, she reluctantly carried out this task, and with a deep sadness, murdered King Llane, cutting his heart out. At the time, she was pregnant with her son, Med'an. Gul'dan was in coma so Orgrim Doomhammer used this situation to his advantage, killing the corrupt Blackhand and seizing the mantle of Warchief. His spies found Garona and tortured her, almost to death, until she finally revealed the secret location of the Shadow Council. The Council was destroyed, and most warlocks were slain. Spies continued searching for Garona after the Second War.Flashback In World of Warcraft She was seen in Ravenholdt Manor, the guild of assassins, during the World of Warcraft Closed Beta, with the title of "Grand Master of the Assassin's Guild". The NPC was later removed and has not reappeared since. She is possibly being reserved for a special storyline in a future content patch following the release of an expansion pack. :Note: Though she was removed from the game, her NPC ID is still located in the game as Creature 6767: Garona. Garona's return Garona continued watching over her son. By the time of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, her son was attacked by a Horde party formed by an ogre, an orc, a tauren, a Darkspear troll and a Forsaken. As they were beat her son, she suddenly appeared and killed the entire party. Parentage Garona's "non-orcish" heritage was very much disputed, but it is now confirmed that she is a orc-draenei half-breed. Note: The section below is kept just for historical reasons. Half-orc half-human? The initial conclusion regarding the situation was that she was a half-orc (and half-human), as she claimed in the Warcraft I manual. It was implied that Garona was born from the union of the first orcish scouts with humans they took as slaves during their initial raid (making her age during the start of the first war around 15). Timeline retconning issues later seemed to make that impossible because, in Warcraft's initial history, there were approximately 15 years between the time the first orc scouts entered Azeroth, and sacked the first village, to the start of the First War. However, later on, Metzen removed 14 years from the timeline leaving only a year between the time the first scouts arrived and when the first war began, making it impossible for Garona to have been created by any human and orc union — from the facts as we understand them. Instead, it was more likely that Garona was born on Draenor years before and come through the portal with the invading orcs. However, this could be explained. Early on, Brann and the Explorers' League thought that she was half-orc and half-human, however, due to her age, it would be impossible for a human and orc to have produced her since she was already a young woman at the time. Although remotely possible; its also unlikely that she would be even part human. That is assuming one of her parents were already a partial human hybrid. I.E. "half-orc half-human", or "half-human half-draenei", making her half-human/half-draenei/half-orc. Half-orc half-near-human? In the novel The Last Guardian, Garona states that when orcs look at her, they saw only her "human" parts, and Medivh surmised that her homeland had "humans or near-humans", while Khadgar wondered how much of her physical appearance was from her human heritage and how much from being female. Garona said that humans looked only at her orc parts, and that the orcs only look at how human she is. Furthermore, Khadgar saw a vision of Gul'dan's quarters on Draenor in which he kept preserved bodies of human or human-like creatures in one of his cabinets along his walls. (Although it is not said in the book, the human-like creatures and the near-humans may be the draenai as Garona is half-draenei.) Half-orc half-draenei? It has been confirmed that Garnona is an orc-dranei half-breed in the Warcraft comics. Garona mentions that she was forced through the portal along with laborers into Azeroth from Draenor, meaning that she was born on Draenor and confirming that she is half-draenei. Horde Player's Guide makes reference to Garona being a half-orc (its definition of a "half-orc" is the offspring of an orc and a human). The book also clarifies that a hybrid of orc and draenei is called a half-draenei. Brann implies that they have physical features from both orcs and draenei, however, he may have never seen a half-draenei so he couldn't be sure. Later, Brann points out that early on people had thought her to be half-human, however, her age would make it seem impossible for a human and orc to have produced her since she was already a young woman at the time. It is mentioned that Garona's parentage is a mystery and that her features do not match those of the draenei he had seen (he has seen mostly Lost OnesLands of Conflict). However, Garona and her son are now shown to have some draenei-like features such shiny eyes and in the case of her son, chin spines. Before her full race identity was revealed in the comic, this issue was brought up on the official forums where the former community manager Caydiem claimed that Garona was in fact half-orc and half-draenei. Caydiem made this plausible by stating that the draenei seen so far in the game had been mutated as Draenor was torn apart by portals and through their portal travels.Blizzard lore posts#Garona's race Appearance With the recent revelation of the appearances of the true draenei and their eredar-like forms — it was hard to believe that Garona was half-draenei since she lacked their cranial features, leg structure, presence of a tail, and hooves — her prowess as an assassin makes it unlikely she is "half-uncorrupted" draenei. However, in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, there is a half-orc half-draenei blademaster in Nagrand — Lantresor of the Blade, leader of the Boulderfist ogres — who reuses Rend Blackhand's orc model lacking draenei features and human features. Although Lantresor's model may just be using an orc model due to the lack of a true half-draenei model in-game (in the same way that half-elves are represented by elven models in game), Garona looks like him, without draenei features. In the World of Warcraft (Wildstorm comic), she is portrayed, similar to her older renditions, with dominant orcish features. Her only draenei features are the eye glows (not white, however, but purple) and the structure of her forehead. Horns, hooves, and the tail are missing, athough it is possible that they have been physically removed or simply are rudimentary and hidden under her clothes and hair. Her leg structure has nothing in common with the draenei's though. It is also curious that her clothes, tattoo, and haircut are similar to 2003's orc assassin concept art by Samwise, implying this may have been an older picture of Garona and not a random hero. Her hairstyle also resembles that of Drusenna the Vigilant as portrayed by Samwise in 2006. Aging spell Surprisingly, Garona's only memories of the red world of Draenor are after it had become a barren wasteland. She doesn't appear to remember the times before orcs were corrupted and knew only a few details of the Rise of the Horde; such as that the orcs' skin went from brown to green and that they went from practicing different magic (fel magic) than what they had known before (shamanism), the ceremony binding the orcs to the Legion, as well as details leading to them coming to Azeroth; however, the way she describes the past in Tides of Darkness and The Last Guardian, it doesn't appear that she had first hand experience with any of those events. She displays no knowledge of (or at least doesn't talk about) the orcs' noble shamanistic heritage, and only remembered Draenor as a barren wasteland, not a verdant grassland, making it likely that she was born after the devastation wrought by the orcs' corruption. A theory to explain this is the recent revelation in the novel Rise of the Horde that orc warlocks possessed aging magic. She may have been born shortly prior to or during the orcs' campaign against the draenei and then aged to adulthood such as the children of Blackhand were. Trivia *She considered Khadgar, Lothar, and Llane to be her only human friends. *Her name appears on the rogue quest item book: Garona: A Study on Stealth and Treachery. *Malyfous Darkhammer, a member of the Thorium Brotherhood, notes that the Breastplate of Bloodthirst is Garona's trademark chestpiece (as seen in the render above). He offers players a replica of the breastplate, given a certain amount of materials. *Garona's Signet Ring is a drop from The Curator in Karazhan. *It should be noted that Garona's last name "Halforcen" is similiar to the name of her race, "half-orc". Sudden disappearance from Warcraft III In early release information related to Warcraft III, including private demonstrations to the media, it was mentioned that Garona was intended to play a major role in the main campaign, likening her importance to that of Thrall himself. On April 27, 2000, IGN.com interviewed Rob Pardo about the up-and-coming game titled Warcraft III. In an interview conducted by IGN, Garona is mentioned as a playable hero unit, but by the game's release in 2002, she was strangely missing. BlizzCon mention At BlizzCon's 2007 Q&A, it was stated that she might indeed return to the orcish race when Chris Metzen strongly implied that he would like to introduce Garona as a possible love interest for Thrall. However, this is just an idea that was randomly thrown out there it would seem. Memorable quotes *"Never better. Needed a little exercise. This whelp was kind enough to oblige." *"Yes, surprisingly, I can read..." *"Human languages are a bit...wordy." *"Let's just say I've been having a problem with divided loyalties." *"I'm going to kill him. He treated me well, and listened when I talked, and I'm going to kill him. No." *"In your histories, there are continual justifications for all manner of hellish actions. Claims of nobility and heritage and honor to cover up every bit of genocide, assassination, and massacre. At least the Horde is honest in their naked lust for power." *"Human or orc...An orc would say that it's a human hand—too slender to be really useful, not enough muscle to hold an ax or bash a skull in properly—too pale, too weak, and too ugly. You see the parts of me that are orcish. My orcish superiors, and all other orcs, see the parts of me that are human. I am both, and neither, and considered an inferior being by both sides." *"I feared, but survived. And I found my half-breed life gave me insight on these humans." Items * * References External links Category:Major characters Category:Orcs Category:Draenei Category:Half-breeds Category:Lore characters Category:Shadow Council Category:Featured Articles Category:World of Warcraft (comic) characters